Two men go fishing the traditional way off the coast of the Italian island of Sardinia. One new study of human ancestry used the genetic diversity of Sardinian men to determine the dates of the last common male ancestor of modern humans.
Photo by Gianluca Dedola
180,000-200,000 years ago: the time when humanity's last common male ancestor likely walked Earth
28.3 mph: the speed at which Boston Dynamics' Cheetah Robot can sprint (it is one of our 10 favorite athletic robots)
$300-$2,000: the money a 3-D printer could save you per year by printing household items
73,000: the number of images used to create this picture of an x-ray telescope shifting its gaze
2,500: the estimated number of baseball bats that shattered in players hands in 2008 (thankfully, the U.S. Forest Service is on the case!)
112: the atomic number of the radioactive synthetic element Copernicium (see it on this beautiful periodic table, which uses no numbers or letters-only dots)
4.7 inches: the size of the screen on the new Google/Motorola Moto X smartphone, which is delightfully quiet
8 percent: the portion of people in the UK who admit to taking creepshots of hot strangers in a recent survey
548: the number of images in a 2-minute video documenting the rover Curiosity's first year on Mars
1958: the year President Eisenhower signed the bill that created NASA
     |